<HTML>Dear Shalom,
Regarding the query how to treat the students' question as to why the
teacher believes specifically in the God of Israel, one could write
volumes on how to address this issue. In the end, there is no single
answer to this question, and I dare say there are at least as many answers
as there are believers. Questions of belief are only partly intellectual,
and they are rooted in the deepest recesses of the believer's personality
and weltanschauung. Any honest - and, ultimately, any convincing -
response must emerge from the teacher's engaging the question on two
levels:
(a) looking deep inside himself to discover where his own belief is truly
rooted=20
Does he believe because the Jewish conception of God gives him the best
explanation/grounding for the existence of the world as he perceives it
(cosmological argument); because it undergirds the values in which he
believes (axiological); because it provides the best
explanation/perspective on the mysteries of Jewish history and peoplehood
(historical); because of the truth and profundity that he perceives in
Torah and mitzvot (empirical/pragmatic); because of reverence and
admiration for Torah personalities (as per Rabbi Akiva's annexing
reverence for talmidei hakhamim to fear of God)? Each and every one of
these potential wellsprings of faith has its own matrix of questions and
answers, as well as its own complex interaction between experience,
emotion, imagination, and intellect. Each believer must locate himself
within this complex before he can formulate the answers which are
meaningful to him - and before someone else from the outside can help him
to do so.
(b) The teacher must have an idea where the student's question is coming
from.
Practically speaking, the teacher should begin by asking the student why
he is asking the question, and attempt to probe how deeply-rooted it is
and whether it stems from a specific intellectual issue or from broader
considerations. Depending on the student's responses, the teacher needs to
decide whether the response can be brief or needs a lengthier treatment,
as well as whether it should be done with the whole class or individually.
I hope this is helpful, even though (in my opinion - because) it didn't
give any specific way of handling the question.
Regarding the question of solar eclipses as a curse, as in gemara Sukkah,
I would suggest 2 points : (1) at the end of parasha 1 in the Mekhilta
(Horowitz-Rabin edition, bottom of p. 7) the same view is brought, but the
Mekhilta concludes with a view that one should not fear heavenly omens.
(2) The scientific regularity of eclipses was known long before the time
of Hazal - the Greek philosopher Thales already successfully predicted a
solar eclipse, and Hazal were certainly well aware of the science of
astronomy of their day. The idea of "siman ra" does not necessarily have
to do with unpredictable events - the disappearance of the moon every
month, according to the midrash (hullin 60b), requires God, kivyakhol, to
bring atonement for having reduced the size of the moon. Astronomical
events - as well as other natural forces (see Berakhot 59a) - symbolize
spiritual realities, sometimes benevolent and sometimes threatening.
Avie Walfish</HTML>
